Aust Beef Industry rallies to ban BSE Imports

Direct from the Source

THE reputation of Australian beef is expected to take a hammering in the weeks ahead as Coalition Senators and a producers rebellion intensifies their  push to exclude the importation of US beef.

Queensland Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce and NSW Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan gave an insight of things to come for the industry on Saturday when they played to about 800 beef producers in Armidale, many angry at the Rudd Government’s decision to allow beef imports from countries previously infected with BSE, commonly known as mad cow disease.

Promoted as a "new direction" for Australian beef, the meeting chaired by Sydney shock-jock radio announcer Alan Jones quickly dissolved into a downward spiral of grievances, with producers blaming dwindling returns, poor prices, retailer margins, bureaucracy and the Rudd Government for plunging their industry into crisis.

Chief organiser JR McDonald demanded the representatives of Australia’s peak red meat industry bodies, particularly those on the boards of MLA, Cattle Council and the Red Meat Advisory Council be sacked and replaced.

 Meanwhile the centrepiece of the meeting – the unveiling of JR McDonald’s and NSW Independent Richard Torbay’s meat grading system, which proposes to label old cow beef as low quality – was swamped by the BSE import hysteria gripping some sectors of the industry.

Senator Joyce urged those in the crowd to spread the message about the dangers posed by US beef to pave the way for the Coalition’s private members bill through the Senate, proposing that exporting countries install Australian-equivalent testing regimes and traceability standards.

Australia imposed its ban in 2001 following several cases of BSE.

Under the new rules, only imports of muscle meat, or products of muscle meat, that is not infected with BSE will be allowed into Australia.

Fresh beef also must receive clearance from Biosecurity Australia.

Australia also is requiring exporters to meet or exceed that country's traceability standards.

AgForce Cattle president Grant Maudsley says he will have no problems eating US beef if it comes into the country under current protocols - it's the Coalition's aggressive posturing that he finds hard to stomach.

In an interview after Saturday's meeting, Senator Joyce conceded there was the potential to undermine the reputation of Australian beef by talking up the risks of US beef to consumers.

However, he said winning tighter import controls on US beef would outweigh the negatives.

"There is a risk there and people have to be mindful of that. But the only way you can truly allay people's fears is by implementing a transparent form of analysis that they can see and have confidence in," he said.

Senator Joyce rejected suggestions that he was generating a scare campaign to score political points against the beleaguered Rudd Government.

"You might want to call it a scare campaign, I call it lobbying," he said.

VOP  suggests that Agforce  Grant Maudsley and his associates reads our official USAFTA Free Trade Agreement documents [ simplified] as signed off  by President Bush office in 2004 , this document was approved by both major parties of the Australian  government and implemented in Jan/2005  

A] Link Ref Updates> October/2004 Part 1 USTFA Initial Overview

B] Link Ref Updates > November/ 2007.USFTA

Facts 

1] Our representative attended the Trade talks in the US and these are the abbreviated and simplified documents referred to.

2] Those conclusions were verified by Independent Authority’s in International Business affairs, Professor’s Linda Weiss / Elizabeth Thurbon / John Mathews

3] From the inset we advised the then Trade minister Mark Vaile his senior trade  adviser Stephen Deedy that this agreement would be an economic disaster for Australia in almost every category .

4]  Bio Security is not required to carry out any special inspection checks on products imported  under  the terms of the USAFTA.

5]  Beef and Fork that have come from BSE effected countries within the  USA Trade Group , are not used for domestic consumption  in  USA and are generally exported.

We now ask  Agriculture Minister Tony Burke  Trade Minister Simon Crean Cattle Council CEO Greg Brown Meat and live Stock Assoc  Don Heatley and  David Palmer /Grant Maudsley,  are they prepared to provide compensation Guarantee’s to the Australian beef and cattle farmers and the public  against a potential outbreak of BSE from  imported meat supplied under USFTA. and effected countries .

** It has just been announced to-day that the Federal Government has agreed to Temporarily retain the ban on Beef Imports from BSE countries for the next 24 months until further health reviews are carried.